"I was disappointed that I was the only female on the committee," said Sen. Edna Brown (D-Toledo). "I was disappointed that most people testifying [were] limited to 120 seconds... When this body decides to make major changes to the availability of health care for women and men in our state, everyone should be given the opportunity to fully express their views."
Sen. Charleta Tavares (D-Columbus) said many residents use Planned Parenthood for needed services, including pregnancy testing and prenatal care, cancer screenings and HIV testing.
"Those who support the bill would rather deny access to these critical health services than have the money to flow through Planned Parenthood," she said, adding later, "There is simply not enough capacity within the health care system to absorb patients currently served by" Planned Parenthood's 28 locations in Ohio.
Sen. Capri Cafaro, a Hubbard Democrat, said most of those facilities won't be able to provide reproductive health services and information to patients who currently visit Planned Parenthood centers. Cafaro surveyed the health departments and health centers in her district and found many of them did not provide family planning or gynecological services and ones that did had weeks-long wait lists.
"Just because it physically exists doesn't necessarily mean it would provide the services that would go away if Planned Parenthood were to not receive funding," Cafaro told her colleagues from the Senate floor.
Sen. Kenny Yuko, a Cleveland Democrat, requested information last week about the impact of the bill on these programs. The Ohio Department of Health replied Tuesday that it would need another week to determine how many entities would be affected by Senate Bill 214.
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